FEBRUARY 7, 2014

IN THIS ISSUE

1. Consider donating to Catholic Relief Services to mark a day of atonement and forgiveness

This concluding day of Mission Week, Friday, Feb. 7, will be spent in reflection on the week's events, the dimensions of our lives that are in need of forgiveness and how we are called to forgive others. Historically, Christians have marked important moments of reconciliation with God through the acts of prayer, fasting and almsgiving (charitable giving). Members of the campus community are asked to consider donating to Catholic Relief Services and fasting from attitudes or habits that inhibit forgiveness of others.

2. Mitchem Fellow to give lecture on racial leadership

The Women's and Gender Studies Program is sponsoring a lecture by Mitchem Fellow, Brandon Byrd, Wednesday, Feb. 12, at 3 p.m. in Raynor Memorial Libraries' Beaumier Suite A. Byrd, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, will deliver "Black Women, Racial Leadership and the Roots of Haitian Underdevelopment."

For additional information, contact Dr. Carla Hay, associate professor of history and director of the WGST Program, at (414) 288-7150.

The O'Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism will host a multimedia presentation featuring Hal Bernton, a Seattle Times reporter and 2013-14 O'Brien Fellow, Wednesday, Feb. 12, at 4 p.m. in Johnston Hall, jPad. Bernton, along with Diederich College of Communication graduate student Zhu Ye, will present "Coal and Wind in China's Inner Mongolia." Their research will contribute to a planned series of stories in The Seattle Times about the challenges of reducing carbon emission in China and the United States.

For more information, contact Herbert Lowe, director of journalism for social change, at (414) 288-4068.

4. Marquette Theatre presents Almost, Maine

Marquette Theatre will present Almost, Maine, a comedy that chronicles how the residents of the tiny town of Almost finds themselves falling in and out of love in the strangest ways one magical winter night. Performances will run:

Thursday, Feb. 13, through Saturday, Feb. 15, at 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, Feb. 16, at 2:30 p.m.

Wednesday, Feb. 19, through Saturday, Feb. 22, at 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, Feb. 23, at 2:30 p.m.

Tickets can be purchased online or by calling the Helfaer Theatre at (414) 288-7504.

New York City Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan will discuss her office's efforts to investigate the illegal drug trade in the next "On the Issues with Mike Gousha," Thursday, Feb. 13, from 12:15 p.m. to 1:15 p.m. at Eckstein Hall.

A Milwaukee native, Brennan is the first woman to serve as New York City's special narcotics prosecutor. Her office handles an average of 3,000 indictments a year, conducts investigations into national and international drug trafficking organizations, and participates in large-scale police department operations targeting specific areas of New York City.

Brennan was hired in 1983 as an assistant district attorney by iconic then-Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. Her caseload eventually included murders, robberies and sex crimes. She has been the city's special narcotics prosecutor since 1998.

8. Burleigh Media Ethics Lecture will be delivered by one of the country's leading voices in media ethics

The Diederich College of Communication will host Kelly McBride, Poynter Institute senior faculty member and editor of The New Ethics of Journalism: Principles for the 21st Century, for the 2014 Burleigh Media Ethics Lecture on Tuesday, Feb. 25, at 4 p.m. in the Helfaer Theatre. McBride will deliver "Truth and Trust in the 21st Century: Why Journalism Ethics Will Change."

The Burleigh Media Ethics Lecture is sponsored annually by the Diederich College of Communication. Burleigh lectures address ethical issues today's communicators report on, as well as those they wrestle with in their own work.

9. Two Rynne Faculty Research Fellowships available

Center for Peacemaking Rynne Research Fellowship applications are available online and must be submitted by Monday, March 3. Two $2,500 research grants will be given to advance research on an aspect of nonviolent peacemaking. They are intended to fund work for a two-month period during the summer. Individuals can submit a research proposal of their choice or focus on a topic in one of the Center for Peacemaking's priority research areas.

For more information or to discuss project ideas, contact Patrick Kennelly, director of the Center for Peacemaking, at (414) 288-8445.

10. Suicide prevention training offered Feb. 12

The Counseling Center will hold a "Question, Persuade, Refer" suicide prevention training session Wednesday, Feb. 12, from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Lalumiere, 184. QPR training is a nationally recognized program designed to save lives by teaching individuals to identify and refer someone who may be suicidal. During the training session, participants will learn about the risks and warning signs of suicide, how to talk to someone about suicide, and how to facilitate appropriate mental health referrals to sites at Marquette and within the Milwaukee community.

For more information and registration, contact the Counseling Center at (414) 288-7172. Those unable to make the training may schedule a private QPR training with a group of ten or more individuals.

11. Final orientation session on the Libraries' Funding Information Center is next week

Raynor Memorial Libraries will host an orientation session on the Funding Information Center, one of more than 470 partners in the Foundation Center's Funding Information Network, which is designed to provide current information for the fund-seeking public and those doing research on private foundations, philanthropy, nonprofit organization and management, volunteerism, fundraising, grantmaking, and letter and proposal writing. The session will take place Wednesday, Feb. 12, at 10 a.m., and will cover the types of resources found at the center, how to identify and research prospective funders and how to update records on grantmakers.

Registration is required and can be completed by calling (414) 288-1515. A specific meeting room will be shared upon registration. For more information, contact Mary Frenn, funding information librarian, at (414) 288-1995.

Employee Wellness has partnered with HealthyWage to offer a team weight loss challenge with the chance to win $10,000. Teams of five will compete to see who can lose the greatest percentage of their weight. The grand prize is $10,000, second place wins $5,000 and third place wins $3,000. More information can be found on the Employee Wellness website.

A free Nutrition Fair is being held Monday, Feb. 10, from noon to 1 p.m. in the AMU, 157, sponsored by Employee Wellness and Sodexo. Nutrition resources on campus will be available, as well as prizes and free green smoothies.

A 10-week, self-guided Eat Right For Life Challenge will help employees learn how to eat the right types of carbohydrates and fats, get the proper amount of fruits and vegetables, drink the right beverages and select the right proteins. Registration is free and all participants will receive the Eat Right for Life Book and Cookbook Companion. Employees who complete the program will be entered to win prizes.

Five-week introductory Pilates and yoga classes are available for beginners, beginning Wednesday, Feb. 19. Classes will be held on the first floor of the 707 Building every Wednesday from 12:05 p.m. to 12:50 p.m. Register online.

13. Males ages 18-30 needed for research study

The Medical College of Wisconsin and the Center for Motion Analysis in the College of Engineering are looking for males ages 18-30 with no lower extremity injuries to participate in a research study. The study will involve two, one-hour visits. Participants will be paid $50 for each visit and will receive a pair of running shoes. For more information, contact Janelle Cross, teaching assistant in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, at (414) 288-0697.

This study has been approved by Marquette's Institutional Review Board for the protection of human subjects. For more information about research participant rights, contact the Office of Research Compliance at (414) 288-7570.

14. Mission Week daily reflection: Forgiveness and the protection of the Earth

Each day of Mission Week, Dr. Michael Dante, director of the Faber Center for Ignatian Spirituality, will offer campus a reflection to echo that day's morning prayer theme. The Faber Center has also developed video reflections for the campus community, which are available on the Faber Center website.

In this week's final reflection, Dante asks us to explore our relationship to the Earth:

The earth is our home. It sustains our life by providing us air, water, food, and the elements we need for shelter and wellbeing. Yet, we have a deeper level of connection to the earth and the cosmos. The iron in our blood and calcium in our bones find their origin in the first-generation stars from billions of years ago. All aspects of our physical existence come from the universe. It is important to recognize the long and inseparable history that humanity shares with the created world. The Ignatian tradition reinforces this reality by reminding us that we humans are creatures among other creatures and created things. The more we recognize these profound connections, the easier it is to see how we have forsaken and misused our relationship with the rest of the earth. We start to grow in our awareness of the natural resources we have taken for granted and how we have allowed our own comfort to come at the expense of other creatures. This growing awareness calls forth within us a change of heart.

In 2011, the Society of Jesus' Task Force on Ecology published a document titled Healing a Broken World to help our reconciliation with the earth in both spiritual and pragmatic ways. It says, in part:

The deepening of our faith experience in God's creative gift of life calls for
transformative change in the way we respond to the urgent task of
reconciliation with creation. Creation, the life-giving gift of God, has become
material, extractable and marketable. Full of paradoxes, the world confuses
and accuses us, but holds out, at the same time, encouraging signs. There is
fear, turmoil, suffering, and despair, but also expressions of hope and trust.
All of us are responsible, some of us more than others; all of us suffer the
effects, some more than others. Justified by technological prowess and
consumed by greed, too many human beings continue to dominate
nature in the advance towards progress; too few reckon with the
consequences of our actions.

Rational and technical answers to the physical and biological challenges of
this world dominate our experience, blunting our sensitivity to the mystery,
diversity and vastness of life and the universe. The spiritual depth of
communion with nature is banished from our experience by an excess of
rationality, but if we want to respond to the searching questions of the
women and men of our time, we need to go deeper and increase our
communion with creation. We have much to learn in this from others so that
their experience makes us draw deeper from our own faith; we need to
know on our pulse the hope and healing sought by so many in the world
today, especially those who are young or vulnerable and in need of peace
across the land.

In light of this reflection, how do you see yourself connected to the universe and what reconciliation might be called for in your relationship with creation? Are you conscious of the food and fuel chains you participate in, your use of water and the impact of your choices on those in need? How might your choices, large and small, better reflect your responsibility to a fragile and interdependent world?

News Briefs is published for Marquette students, faculty and staff every Monday and Thursday, except during summer and academic breaks when only the Monday edition is published. The deadline for the Monday edition is noon Friday. The deadline for the Thursday edition is noon Wednesday. Highest priority notices as determined by university leadership are also sent periodically.